Thinking and Problem Solving Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Divya is using subgoal analysis.

Subgoal analysis (means-ends analysis) is a problem-solving strategy in which a large problem is broken into smaller, manageable intermediate goals, each of which can be achieved in turn. Dividing an assigned job into small tasks she can handle is exactly this.

Functional fixedness is a barrier to problem solving, the inability to see a new use for a familiar object. Reductionism is explaining a complex phenomenon by its simplest parts, a philosophical position rather than a working strategy, and secondary elaboration is a term from Freud's account of dreams.

Answer: B

The answer is metacognition.

Metacognition is 'thinking about thinking': being aware of one's own cognitive processes and controlling them. It includes planning how to approach a task, monitoring one's understanding while working, and reviewing and revising one's strategies, exactly the examples in the stem.

Cognition is thinking itself, not awareness and control of it. Centration is the preoperational child's tendency to focus on one feature of a situation, and accommodation is Piaget's term for changing a schema to fit new information.

Answer: B

The behaviour reflects vigilant decision making.

Janis and Mann's conflict model of decision making describes several patterns. In vigilance, the decision maker searches for information, lists the alternatives and weighs the advantages and disadvantages of each before choosing, which is the behaviour described. The faulty patterns include unconflicted adherence, unconflicted change, defensive avoidance and hypervigilance (panic).

Surveillance, outgoing and autocratic are not patterns in the Janis-Mann model.

Answer: D

It is logical thinking.

In logical thinking the problem solver reasons from premises to conclusions and evaluates whether statements are true or how likely they are, using rules of inference. Judging the truth or likelihood of statements is the work of logical (critical) reasoning.

Creative thinking generates new ideas, aesthetic thinking concerns beauty and appreciation, and abstract thinking deals with ideas not tied to concrete objects. None of them is defined by evaluating the truth of statements.

Answer: A

Ruhi is a creative thinker.

Producing many solutions to one problem, several of them original, is divergent thinking, the core of creativity. Fluency (many ideas), flexibility and originality are the usual marks of a creative thinker.

A convergent thinker narrows a problem down to the single correct answer. A rigid thinker sticks to one fixed way, and egocentric thinking, in Piaget's sense, is the inability to see from another person's point of view. None of these describes Ruhi.

Answer: D

The teacher should be encouraging children to make intuitive guesses and then brainstorming on the same.

Good problem solvers are willing to try ideas, estimate and then test and refine them. Inviting guesses and discussing them openly builds that confidence and teaches children to reason about why an idea works or not.

Material rewards for every small task make children work for the prize, stressing only procedures discourages flexible thinking, and penalising wrong answers makes children afraid to try, which is the opposite of what problem solving needs.

Answer: D

An effective strategy is means-end analysis, dividing the problem into a number of sub-goals.

Means-end analysis, described by Newell and Simon, compares the current state with the goal, identifies the difference, and sets sub-goals that reduce it step by step. Breaking a large problem into manageable parts is a powerful general heuristic.

The other three are obstacles to problem solving. Failing to evaluate the solution leaves errors undetected. Functional fixedness, seeing an object only in its usual use, and a response set, being stuck on one way of representing a problem, both block the flexible thinking that new problems need.

Answer: C

Problem-solving is hindered by Functional fixedness.

Functional fixedness is the tendency to see an object only in its usual function. It blocks solutions that need an object to be used in a new way, as in Duncker's candle problem, where people fail to see that the box holding the tacks can serve as a shelf.

The other three are aids to problem-solving. An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution. A heuristic is a rule of thumb that often leads quickly to a solution. Analogical thinking uses the solution of a similar, familiar problem to solve a new one.

Answer: C

The activities should demand (i) and (iv), logical reasoning and analysis, and synthesis and evaluation of information.

Critical thinking means examining ideas and evidence, reasoning about them and making judgements. In Bloom's taxonomy these are the higher-order levels: analysis, synthesis (creating) and evaluation.

Mere retrieval of previously learnt concepts (ii) and rote rehearsal and memorisation (iii) belong to the lowest level, remembering. They are useful for some purposes but do not develop critical thinking, so every option containing (ii) or (iii) is wrong.

Answer: A

Radha is showing an understanding of cause and effect.

She links an outcome (clothes drying faster) to the condition that produces it (being in the sun) and states the causal relationship correctly.

Reversible thinking is the ability to mentally undo an operation, as in conservation tasks. Decentration is attending to several features of a situation at once. Animism is attributing life or intentions to non-living things; saying the sun is 'helping' is a figure of speech here, and the reasoning itself is causal.